Life Altering
by Erica T
Summary: After Mac has fired her, Aiden goes to visit Flack.
1. Chapter 1

I suppose this could be seen as a pre-quel to 'Dinner's Ready', but it can also stand alone quite well. A look at what could have happened after Mac fired Aiden.

Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing. With the exception of a signed script, which has yet to arrive. I'm still quite happy with that.

Life Altering

Aiden stared at the wooden door in front of her. She shifted from foot to foot, trying to decide if she should do this or not. On the one hand, she should just make a clean break of it, just walk away from this life and move on to something else. She'd always been good at fitting in wherever she was, she could make it.

But on the other hand, some part of her just couldn't walk away from him, not with everything left unsaid. She didn't know when things had started to change between them, she just knew that they had. A subtle glance here, an inadvertent touch there and suddenly there was a whole wealth of feelings that she had problems defining. And although it might have been easier to just leave it alone, there were too many possibilities there for her to not to explore them.

If there was one thing that her time as a CSI had taught her, it was that life was far too short to waste running away from a chance to be happy. Even if it took a life altering event to finally make her acknowledge it.

She knocked.

Flack prided himself on always expecting the unexpected. He'd learned that really fast back when he was a rookie on the force. He'd learned to take it to a new level when he started working in homicide.

But Aiden Burn turning up on the other side of his door looking as if she was about to cry was only something that happened in his fantasies. She had always had her own little section of 'the unexpected' in his point of view. She was even more unpredictable than the chaos that was his day to day life. She was just as likely to smile at someone as she was to beat the living hell out of the same person for looking at her in an offensive way.

He still never would have imagined she would come to him when she was obviously upset. He leaned against the inside of his door next to the peephole and took a deep breath. Something was up, and he had a feeling it wasn't going to be something very good.

When she knocked a second time, he unlatched the door and pulled it open.

She smiled at him uncertainly, and that expression alone made him step aside for her to come in. Aiden Burn was never uncertain.

"What's wrong, Aiden?" He asked her as he closed the door. She didn't answer right away, instead, she took her shoes off and moved into his living room. He followed her and watched her carefully. She stood and stared out his window for a moment, her arms folded across her chest, then she turned around and faced him.

"I'm uh…I'm not going to see you at work tomorrow." She said. He frowned.

"What? Of course you are. We probably won't be working the same case, but it's not like we won't be in the same building most of the time." He said. She shook her head, and his frown deepened. "What is going on, Aiden?"

Her gaze fell away from his face and she seemed to have a little trouble with what she was going to say. When she raised her eyes again she finally seemed to get it sorted out in her head.

"I don't work at the Crime Lab any more Don. Mac fired me about two hours ago."

He stared at her, dumbfounded. He wanted to not believe her, he wanted to say that there was no way that Mac would fire her, of all people. But everything he knew about Mac roared into his head and told him that he would fire someone if he had to. Mac would fire her, if she'd done something that warranted it. There was only one thing that he knew Mac wouldn't protect anyone from.

She was watching him digest the information, and he knew that she could see on his face that he'd figured out exactly why Mac had fired her. He also knew that she was probably waiting to see what he would do, how he would react. If it had been anyone else, he'd have been pissed off. But this was Aiden, she never did anything without a reason. He needed to know why. He sat down on his couch and pointed at the other end.

"Tell me." He said. She approached the couch slowly and sat down on the edge, facing him, looking for all intents and purposes like she was going to bolt if she had to. She swallowed, and explained everything that had happened in fine detail.

"…but I couldn't do it. If I did, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself, even if it did put him away. I put the hair back." She finished, after having spilled out all her frustration. As she told the story, she had become more comfortable and had sat further back into his couch, her head eventually resting on the cushion beside her, and she'd folded her legs up underneath her.

"There's more isn't there?" He asked, leaning forward. "You could have resealed the hair sample and claimed that you opened it to compare it with a possible hair that you found on anything that Regina was wearing."

"I didn't have a hair to compare it too, Don." She said, tiredly. "Mac would have seen through that in a second."

"That's immaterial. There's lots of ways you could have kept yourself out of hot water, but you didn't. And the moment that Mac asked for the evidence, you had to know that he'd find the broken seal. From then on, you had to know that you wouldn't be working there tomorrow."

Aiden closed her eyes and nodded.

"Why would you sabotage your own career, Aid?" He asked her. She frowned and opened her eyes again.

"I just…I just can't do it anymore. I used to be able to go to work, process a crime scene, solve a case and go home at night without thinking about it. The mystery used to be fun to solve, it used to be a challenge. Now I go home, and I wonder what kind of horror I'm going to be thrown into the next day, now the mystery's a burden. And when I can't solve it, even though I know exactly who did it, when I can't make justice happen…I'm useless. I had to tell Regina that I couldn't put him away this time. It was heartbreaking, the look in her eyes. She'll be forever looking over her shoulder, because I failed her."

"Aiden, it wasn't your fault that the guy got smarter."

"I know that. But it doesn't change the fact that I couldn't get him." She closed her eyes again and sighed heavily. "I know that I need the change. I've been needing it ever since the mystery stopped being a challenge. I know that I did something unethical, that I almost broke the law, but I took responsibility for it when I needed to, and I accepted the consequences of my actions. Considering the circumstances, I did pretty good."

"Okay. So?"

"So why do I feel like my world has just ended?" She groaned. Flack half smiled at her.

"The Lab was a huge part of your life, Aid. Maybe it got bad at the end, but you still lived and breathed crime solving like nobody I've ever known. You're not going to just forget it overnight."

She was quiet for a few moments, breathing in and out deeply, like she was trying to calm down. It took him a moment, because this wasn't behaviour that he was used to from her, but he eventually realized that she was trying not to cry. He moved across the couch and tentatively reached over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. When she choked back a sob, he pulled her over to him so that her head was resting on his chest and her legs were across his lap. Aiden hated to cry, he knew that. She hated that it was seen as a sign of weakness by most of society, but she still refused to let anyone see her vulnerable. Even now, he could feel by how tense she was that she was resisting floodgates. It probably wasn't good for her.

"Aiden, I know that you're strong, but even strong people have to cry sometimes. It's called being human." He told her.

"I told myself that I would not cry over this." She protested, her voice cracking.

"Do it anyway. You'll feel better."

To his surprise, her hands grabbed hold of his shirt and she actually let herself cry. He hadn't been so sure that she would listen to him. She didn't cry great heaving sobs, like some women were wont to do, but the steady flow of tears did soak his shirt through quite quickly.

"It's not even because I've lost my job." She tried to explain. "It's knowing that I'm going to lose all the friends I had there."

He ran a comforting hand up and down her back.

"Why would you lose them?"

She laughed bitterly and sniffled.

"Come on, Don. By tomorrow, everyone will know I'm gone. And the entire lab will also probably know why. Do you really think anyone's going to want to talk to me again?"

"You never cared what the lab thought. You only cared what the team thought. And nothing is ever going to change how we see you."

She shook her head, mussing up her hair.

"I screwed up. Danny's going to be furious, Mac's already furious, Stella will be disappointed and--"

"And nothing. Look, Mac's not going to just let their imaginations fill in the blanks. He'll probably tell them everything that you told me. Aiden, we're not going to just turn our backs on you."

She didn't say anything for a while.

"Do you hate me?" She asked through the remnants her tears, sounding very much like a small child who had just lost her best friend. His heart broke, and he held her tighter.

"Of course not. It's not in me to hate you."

"But you are disappointed, right?" He took a deep breath.

"If it were anyone else but you, I would be. But you never do anything without a damn good reason. And maybe you chose the wrong way, but you were trying to put a rapist behind bars and give a terrified woman some justice and peace of mind. Those are damn good reasons."

She tilted her head back and smiled a watery smile at him.

"Thank you." She whispered. He smiled back and put her hair back to rights, tucking it behind her ears, tenderly. He noticed that she was watching his face intently as he did it and he raised an eyebrow at her.

"What?" She looked away, blushing slightly. He'd never seen her blush before.

"Sorry. It's just that you're always such a tough guy. I've never seen you look so gentle before."

He smiled at her again.

"I'm just full of surprises."

"I bet you are." She let go of his shirt with one hand and raised it up to his face. She ran her fingers over his jaw line and traced her thumb across his cheek. Then she blinked at him.

"Have you noticed this too?" She asked quietly, before continuing. "Did you realize that something's been different between us lately?" Flack nodded slowly.

"Ever since that monastery." He said, his tone matching hers. She smiled and her eyes sparkled slightly. Knowing that a sarcastic comment was about to come, he distracted her by pressing his lips to hers. Her hand slid up into his hair and held tightly and he twirled a few strands of hers around his fingers.

Suddenly, she pulled back stared up at him apprehensively.

"Don't do that unless you mean it." She said. He smiled and kissed her again, briefly, then rested his forehead against hers.

"I mean it. Do you?" He asked. She licked her lips, then she pulled him to her for another kiss. This one escalated when she tilted her head and parted her lips for him. Before he even realized what he was doing, he was leaning her back against the arm of the couch and slipping his hands underneath her top. Her fingers were busy undoing the buttons on his shirt, but she disengaged her mouth from his for a moment and took a deep breath.

"Are you sure?" She asked him seriously. He smiled.

"Shouldn't that be my line?" She narrowed her eyes at him, like she did when she was staring down a suspect that was trying to get cute with her. He grinned and planted a kiss on her forehead. "I think I've been in love with you since you first walked through the doors of the crime lab. I'm very sure."

She blinked and smiled at him.

"You've been waiting three years for me?"

"I'm a very patient man."

"Or you're a very pathetic man." She teased.

"I can think of better things we can be doing than determining the difference between being patient and being pathetic." He said, kissing her again. She smiled into the kiss and nodded her head slightly. She got his shirt off the rest of the way, and then pulled back slightly, so that her lips were still brushing his as she spoke.

"Which way to the bedroom?" She whispered. He responded by slipping an arm under her legs and tightening the other around her back and standing up with her, heading for his bedroom miraculously without tripping over a single thing.

It's amazing what a life altering event can lead to, isn't it?

End Note: I initially had more tacked on to the end here, the morning after sort of stuff. I took it off because I thought it was getting too long, and it didn't add anything to the plotline. However, if the lovely Flack/Aiden devotees who still read these new attempts to keep the love going would like me to post 'The Morning After', as a second chapter, I will gladly do so.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Life Altering: Part 2

Well, I finally got my ass in gear and finished this chapter. It's not as good as I thought it would be, but after several revisions, there's not much else I can do with it, and at least it finishes off the story the way I wanted it too. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: CSI:NY- Not mine.

Life Altering: Part 2

Aiden woke the next morning, her head resting on his chest just over his heart, one arm draped over his abdomen and the other arm under his neck. For his part, one arm was curved around her back, his hand tangled in her hair, and the other was holding onto her hip. She smiled lazily and stretched her legs out slightly, rubbing them against his. The slight movement woke him immediately, years of snapping awake at the sound of a phone made a person a light sleeper. His hold on her tightened slightly and his eyes fluttered open. She watched him languidly, turning her head so that her chin was resting on his chest and she could watch him wake up. He looked incredibly cute first thing in the morning.

His hand left her hip and came up to rub his eyes and he blinked blearily at her before grinning and turning them so that she was resting on the mattress, underneath him.

"Hi." He said. She smiled at him.

"Hi." She answered.

"You know, for a moment, I thought you were a dream." He told her. She snorted, and burst into laughter.

"Sappy movie much?" She laughed. Flack laughed with her and rested his head in the crook of her neck.

"Yeah, I guess it was."

"Who knew I could turn the big bad detective into a romantic cliché?" Aiden giggled.

"Yeah, yeah." He rolled over and looked at the clock.

"I got a couple hours before shift. Shower and breakfast?" He asked. She sighed and curled into his side, considering.

"We could do that. Or we could stay here for a little longer, have a really short shower, then get breakfast on your way into work." She suggested, winking seductively at him. He grinned at her and rolled her over again.

"I like that idea." He said, before kissing her soundly.

They were interrupted by his cell phone ringing. Flack groaned and rested his forehead against hers.

"That figures." He said. She shook her head and pointed at the offending object.

"You better answer it." She said. He yanked it off the nightstand and flipped it open.

"Flack."

He was silent for a moment, then mouthed 'Danny' at her.

"What? No way! Do you know why?" He said into the phone, feigning surprise quite well. Aiden remembered that Danny was working the earlier shift that day, and no doubt would have heard by now that she'd been fired. She'd turned her cell phone off, and since she wasn't at her apartment, no doubt his failed attempts to get in touch with her were frustrating him to no end.

"I'm sure she's fine, Danny. She probably just wants to be alone for a little while. It's probably best not to bug her."

He covered the lower part of his phone with his hand and whispered.

"He wants to go break down your apartment door." Aiden blinked at him in surprise.

"Talk him out of it." She whispered back.

"Danny, you gotta calm down. You know Aiden, she values her privacy just like the rest of us. You wouldn't want her to bust down your door after you got life-altering news, would you?" There was a pause. "Didn't think so. Look, go to your scene, I'm in later this morning. We'll get lunch and talk about it then. Yes, if you insist, we'll go see if Aiden will talk to us. Bye."

He put the phone back on the table and lay down on his back next to her.

"Messer's worried about you. Apparently you're not answering at your apartment." He said. She rolled onto her side and propped her head up with her arm.

"I wonder why that might be." She said, a playful smile crossing her lips. His mouth twitched in a small smile and he gathered her to him.

"To tell the truth, I'm worried too. Are you going to be alright?" He asked. Her smile turned reassuring.

"Of course I will. I'm still a little sad about this, sure, but I've always got my own back covered, you know that. If it hadn't happened like this, I'd have burned out, or gotten myself shot or something. It's probably better this way." She said.

He ran a hand up and down her arm.

"What will you do?"

She took a deep breath.

"Well…I'm only a couple of requirements short of my PhD. I've been thinking about going back to school part-time and picking those up anyway. No time like the present. And NYU's always looking for teachers with field experience."

"You wanna teach?"

"Sure. It could be fun, imparting knowledge to young minds."

"It could also be aggravating as hell."

"Maybe. But if I can't be a CSI anymore, I can at least use what I know. Besides, what else am I going to do? There isn't much call for full time Anthropologists these days. It's mostly lectures and the odd consult job here and there. Just ask Terri Miller."

"Who's Terri Miller?"

Aiden rolled her eyes.

"Forget it. So about that shower?" Flack grinned at her.

"Mm. I like the way you think."

Aiden rolled off the bed, taking the sheet with her, somehow managing to land on her feet and keep moving. He almost asked her how she did that, but remembered that, like him, she'd been rolling out to early crime scenes for a couple of years now. After the first couple of scenes, it starts becoming instinct. He sat up and watched her saunter over to his bathroom. She stopped at the door when she realized he wasn't following her and she half turned to look back at him.

It was probably a thought straight out of an airport romance novel, but the moment she turned, he figured that he would always have that image of her burned into his memory. Tousled hair tossed over her shoulder and a contented smile on her lips, one hand resting against the doorframe and wrapped up in his sheets.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked. He grinned, but didn't say anything right away. If he told her what he was really thinking, she'd probably laugh at him again, and it was a thought he preferred to keep just for himself.

"I'm thinking you look really good all wrapped up in my sheets." He finally said. Her smile warped into a sultry grin and she turned around, leaning completely on the doorframe.

"Blue was always a good colour on me. Wanna know something?" He raised an eyebrow at her, grinning back.

"What's that?"

"I look really good not wrapped up in your sheets." She said, winking at him and disappearing into the bathroom. A second later, her arm stretched out across the open doorway and dropped the sheet in a heap on the floor.

"You coming Mr. Romance, or am I taking this shower all by myself?"

He didn't need to be asked twice.


End file.
